I would like to take this moment to thank all of you for the wonderful forum and all the information available on this site as well as to introduce myself and tell you a little my self, my history and the project I have decided to become involved in.

My name is Michael and I am currently in New Mexico on a work assignment, near Fort Sumner. while looking for something to pass the time on weekends, I took the opportunity to look for a boat to go fishing at lake Fort Sumner for the summer. Well being a sailing FOOL I am I took a look at a few sailboats that were available thinking I could do both sail and fish. Well to my amazement, Lo and behold I found a Pirateer just south of Santa Fe for $300 with trailer, now that just not something you can't pass up. After some investigation and not much debate convinced myself to do it and pull the trigger on this fine specimen partly due to the help, insight and information available here on this site by so many wonderful people. So now I am the proud new or newly acquainted owner of this fine vintage sailing machine (LOL), far cry from my 2015 Beneteau Sense 55, but still and sail boat and a fun one at that. So after a 2.5 hour trip to see and decision to purchase this boat, it was not to bad, just some minor maintenance and allot of TLC, but with this site to help me and a few years of experience with boats the decision to restore it back to great working condition and pass it on at the end of summer was a no brainer. I an fortunate to have an extensive knowledge of boat both sail and motor, so with that in mind I have decided to Journal the present condition and future repairs to it in hope of helping other in the future. I was so pleased to see some great information already available and know that it would be possible to put this thing back together properly quickly and with great ease.

Again I am Proud to be a part of this community and Forum and look forward to enjoying the comradery and knowledge shared amongst fellow sailor's.

Please be patient with me while I figure out how to get all the photos uploaded and process formatted.

I do have several questions that need to be posted soon to help me figure some curious things out.

But for now let me ask this one, there is a thru the hull fitting at the bottom of the boat just forward of the transom. This is obviously factory due tot he recess in the hulls gel coat, it is white plastic and rises up 2" from the bottom of the boat and has a cap of some sort, with a another piece that is inserted into the affixed to the bottom of the hull and it has a rubber seal. I read on this forum the thought of water ballast, but that makes no sense to me..

Thanks for the insight, I figured it to be some type of bailer but the height was not conducive to draining any water.I was hoping not to have to glass over it. but maybe in time. For now I will use some temporary fix to allow me to use the boat.

It's a self bailer. It only works when you're moving. On mine it was leaky and when you would be moving slow water would slowly accumulate. When the wind picked up you could watch the water suck out. It's an open and close type bailer. You would normally have it closed to start out and open it when under way and you need to drain water. It's very efficient.